Hero
by CanIBeYou
Summary: Just a short one shot about what would happen if Sara found out who really rescued her from the desert.  Post Dead Doll.


**Hero**

Just a quick story about what would happen if Sara found out who really rescued her from the desert. Spoilers for "Dead Doll"

* * *

Sara pushed aside the file that she was reading and got up from the break room table to pour a cup of coffee. Her nose wrinkled as she prepared to sip the swill that was in the pot. 

"Hey you," came a familiar voice from the doorway. Sara turned around to see her friend and co-worker, Nick Stokes, come into the break room carrying two familiar paper Starbucks cups. "I thought that you could use this." He handed Sara one of the cups.

"Oh my God, Nick, I love you," Sara sighed after taking a long drink of the coffee. "Hazelnut caramel latte."

He smiled at the declaration of love that she gave so freely, knowing it was just something that she said, and not anything serious. Not that he would have minded. Sara was not supermodel beautiful, but she had something about her that made him want to be her hero, and to protect her from everything bad in the world. Ever since she was kidnapped in an act of revenge against their supervisor, and left to die alone in the desert. He was the one that found her, he was her hero for just a moment, and then it was gone. She thought that Grissom saved her, and he was not about to tell her any different.

"I even remembered to double the espresso," Nick smiled.

"See, that's why you are my favorite." Sara told him. She sat back down at the table and pulled the file folder back in front of her, pushing her long brown hair out of her eyes. She yawned and started to read.

"What are you working on?" Nick asked, folding his large frame into a chair next to her.

"The McDaniel case," She responded, raking her hair back with her fingers. "I have been staring at this for so long; I don't even know what I am reading anymore." She had dark circles under her beautiful brown eyes.

"How can I help?" Nick offered, maybe in a small way, he could be her hero.

* * *

"How are you doing, Sara?" Sophia Curtis asked as they drove the long drive to the McDaniel home in Sparks, NV. It was the first time that they had alone since Sara's rescue. 

"I'm ok." Sara answered. "It is getting easier every day."

"When Nick spotted you in the desert and we found you, I was afraid that we were too late," Sophia confided, "but Nick never gave up, he stayed by your side until the air rescue came."

Sara looked at her confused. "No, Grissom found me. He rode in the helicopter with me, I remember that."

"Grissom arrived after the Air rescue got there." Sophia told her. "He rode with you to Desert Palm, but he was not the one who found you. That was all Nick."

Sara grew silent. Nick rescued her? How can this be, she was sure that Grissom was the one. Why does she not remember Nick being there?

Sara went through the rest of the night in a daze, her confused feelings and emotions running circles in her brain. She and Grissom were dating and things were sort of serious before her kidnapping, but afterward, things were strained, and they had decided to take a break.

* * *

_The heat was stifling as she stumbled through the desert. Not knowing what direction she was going in, but sure that if she stopped she would die. The pain in her head and shoulder was unbearable, but it also reminded her that she was still alive, and she would have to keep moving and work hard to stay that way. But then it was all too much for her to bear, and she sank to her knees, then everything went black._

_From a million miles away, she heard a voice. The voice that told her that everything was going to be ok. "Sara, it's Nick, I'm here."_

Her eyes opened and she sat up in bed, "oh my God, it was Nick."

* * *

Nick was alone in the break room when she arrived, this time she was the one to be bearing the two Starbucks cups. 

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked.

"You look serious, what's wrong, Sunshine?" he grinned at her, as he said it, but she knew that Sunshine was a name he gave her when she was tired and cranky one shift.

"Sophia and I were talking, and she gave me some information that I was not aware of." Sara said softly. "All this time, I thought Grissom was the person that rescued me from the desert. And it wasn't, it was you. Why didn't you say something? Why did you let him take the credit?" She already knew the answer to that; Nick was not the kind of person who would go around patting himself on the back. He would rather just sit back and let someone else take the credit. "You were my hero, Nick, and you let me believe that someone else was."

"Sara, I was just glad that you were ok," Nick assured her, "I didn't need credit. Seeing you coming into the lab, safe, is all that I need to make it all worth it."

Sara walked over to him, and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Thank you, Nick." She said there was a tiny catch in her voice. "I would probably not be alive right now if it was not for you. You didn't give up; you didn't let me die out there in the desert."

"It wasn't your time to die, Sara," He said softly, kissing her gently on the top of the head.


End file.
